Entertainment

Girls' Season 4 premiere picks up right where Season 3 left off, with Hannah and co. each moving on to the Next Big Thing in their meandering, twenty-something lives. As Adam presciently puts it in episode 1's opening scene, they're "taking the next step in a series of random steps." Before that happens, though, the girls of Girls must tie up loose ends — or, at least, haphazardly wrap them together.

Hannah, of everyone, is dealing with the biggest change: She's preparing to leave New York City to start classes at the Iowa Writers' Workshop — and in classic Hannah fashion, she wants everyone to acknowledge that fact. With Adam, in particular, she repeatedly seeks reassurance that he'll miss her ("I just feel like the whole separation thing would be easier if we had a clearer-cut plan"). Unable or unwilling to express his emotions, however, Adam remains outwardly aloof. He avoids giving a proper goodbye on the morning of Hannah's move by pretending to be asleep, opting instead to look on from his apartment window, as she drives off. Meanwhile, Marnie bursts into tears, and Jessa predictably fakes indifference ("I'm not mad at you! I could give a sh*t").

Hannah's extreme self-absorption has irked me (and manyothers) in previous seasons, but whether we like it or not, she is the show's center. It'll be interesting to see how her absence affects the foursome's dynamic, especially seeing as — like most friendships that evolve into adulthood — you could hardly call Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna a "group" anymore.

Chances are, Hannah will be back in NYC sooner rather than later. That's partly because it's hard to imagine Girls set in Iowa half of the time — New York is a major character on the show; no other city can highlight the harsh realities of young adulthood as well as it can. NYC constantly tests and pushes the girls, forcing them to develop, and then plainly lays out their growing pains for all to see. Jessa alludes to this when confronting Hannah in the bathroom at the jazz brunch: "You're pussying out on this whole thing — the whole thing we're all trying to do, which is to make it work regardless of location, right where we are."

Jessa's pain at losing Hannah may have been compounded by another loss earlier in episode 1, as Beedie — the artist with whom she shares a strong connection — is forced to leave New York City after their failed assisted-suicide attempt last season. (On a related note, I'm thrilled to see Natasha Lyonne in all her New York-accented glory guest starring on Girls as Beedie's daughter Rickie)

Unlike Jessa, Marnie characteristically does all things that a Best Friend should do — she writes Hannah a song, she provides words of encouragement, she sees her off. In short, she's the kind of girl who knows exactly what to say, and how to behave. But as her continued philandering with duet partner Desi shows, Marnie is the biggest, most hypocritical mess of them all ("I'm sorry that I gave you the impression that I was even almost remotely capable of doing something like that," she tells Desi's girlfriend Clementine).

Meanwhile, fresh grad Shoshanna seems to have shown the most growth, apologizing to Ray for trying to "manipulate" him into getting back together. We also saw hints last season that Shoshanna was yearning to break free from her friends (case in point: During Season 3, episode 7's memorable fight scene, she tells the group, "Sometimes I wonder if my social anxiety is holding me back from meeting the people who would actually be right for me instead of a bunch of f*cking whiny nothings as friends"). It's unclear whether this "progress" will continue, though, as Shoshanna faces an entirely new anxiety: post-grad life.

Best scenes:

Elijah giving Marnie a pep talk following her failed brunch performance ("What do Judy Garland and Lady Gaga have in common?")

Elijah smack-talking his ex-boyfriend Pal ("New York is such bullsh*t. If we lived anywhere else, I would never have to worry about seeing him because he would've already killed himself from being so small and gay.")

Adam's hilarious commercial for anti-depression medication; everything from its overly dramatic piano music to the "walking a mile in mud" analogy is spot-on

Mashable
is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Powered by its own proprietary technology, Mashable is the go-to source for tech, digital culture and entertainment content for its dedicated and influential audience around the globe.